Basics of the Levels
Schema for Formulations
Nature of the Output: This refers to the type of goal that generates the weight of responsibility. The term «need» is used to cover both market signals/sectors and not-for-profit services of charities and governments.
Examples: Starting from a clear description of the work-responsibility expected, the issue of level may relate to a particular task, be essential in relation to a particular job (or post or role), and indicate size in relation to an organization (or part of one). Because terms are used in different ways and in diverse situations of varying complexity, regard examples as illustrative not absolute.
Time Scale: Tasks are work-goals with explicit time-deadlines for their completion. The time-scale refers to the upper and lower boundaries of these deadlines. Tasks also require explicit or implicit specifications of amount/quantity of output, quality standards and the resources to be used.
Titles: It is not possible to determine level of work from a title alone. Some titles do give an indication, but more information is required. So a CEO or CFO or other Chief post might be at any one of several levels.
WL-1: Prescribed Output
Responsibility for dealing with individual demands or requirements which, if legitimate, are to be taken at face value.
Nature of the Output
Here, the end-product can be specified beforehand in concrete detail insofar as is significant. The specifications may be procedures that are learned during training, or they may be instructions provided by another person (a client, or a supervisor). The work involves a direct response to a series of concrete demands for action.
Examples
- Tasks: Parcel delivery, cab-driving, typing, repairing a machine, physical care of a person, cleaning windows, operating a store check-out, making a wooden chair, processing social security applicants, making travel arrangements.
- Jobs: Receptionist, porter, book-keeper, carpenter, technician, driver.
- Organizations: A one or two-man stand-alone business fulfilling concrete tasks on request.
WL1 tasks do not include a responsibility (or freedom) to decide whether the output is actually needed e.g. governments often set up their bureaucracies with highly prescriptive control to maximize speed, minimize variability, remove bias, and reduce the corruption which could follow from engagement in an applicant's situation.
Creativity or Sub-human Work
Despite appearances or assumptions, WL1 work should not be mechanical or totally specified. Significant skill, judgement and knowledge may be required in technical work. However, nothing is purely technical, because attitudes, sensitivity and social skills are important when dealing with others within and without the organization.
If a job is reduced to a single manual task, with a duration of a minute or two, and endlessly repeated (as in assembly line work), then human creativity is being blocked. The person becomes an instrument. The supposed efficiency ignores costs dumped on to wider society in the form of illness, illegal immigration, alcohol and drug abuse. The solution is a combination of law-enforcement, technology and job enrichment.
Time Scale
Tasks are completed one after the other and each is focused on individually. Efforts to force a person to work faster than their normal pace leads to a loss of quality and unacceptable defects. The time-scale is commonly hours, days, or sometimes weeks. In a job, some tasks probably should last at least 1 day, and none are ever longer than 3 months.
Titles
The individual is often described as an operator, a clerk or a functionary. Groups of WL1 workers (room of typists, gang of road-workers, team of security staff, platoon of soldiers) may form teams. A leader within that team may be identified, perhaps with a title like «senior» or «leading hand». In the military, this is where «the men» or «the troops» are found, with corporal and sergeant as leadership titles within WL1.
WL-2: Situational Response
Responsibility for dealing with requirements or needs of individual cases or problems in pre-specified types of complex open-ended situations.
Nature of the Output
Precise objectives and prompt decisions about the amount and type of response have to be determined. This entails assessing the needs of each particular case (i.e. unit in the workflow) or situation, and how it fits into the relevant context. The work involves gathering and organising information so as to perceive the «real» needs, as distinct from taking the presenting issue at face value. This is typical of professional practice.
In complicated situations, it is not possible to meet a staff member's request to be told what to do in every detail or for every contingency. The answer given to the worker is: "you will have to judge for yourself in the situation." That work is where the weight of responsibility lies. However, any WL2 response must be provided within a given framework (system/rules/procedures/methods) and in a given acceptable style i.e. given from higher levels.
Examples
- Tasks: Handle the breakdown of a complicated arrangement, assess the care needs of a medical patient, cope with tricky staff problems like negligence due to illness, introduce a new software system, design a house to meet a client's wishes, do annual accounts and tax returns to minimize taxes, allocate staff to deal with a variable flow of diverse routine WL1 tasks.
- Jobs: Domestic supervisor, ward sister, junior doctor, manager of a data entry service, personal assistant to a top officer, teacher, personnel trainer.
- Organizations: Small professional practices—usually solo or two partners; owner-operator of a shop; small section within a department.
Time Scale
Tasks are still concrete, but several or many may be handled simultaneously. Tasks may be short, especially if only a diagnosis is required. However, at least some last 3 months and others potentially as long as a year. Tasks, once specified, may require use of WL1 staff to assist or they may be delegated completely.
Titles
This is first-line management, sometimes called supervision. The manager is sometimes called a foreman, supervisor, administrator, officer, or front-line manager. In the military, this is where officer titles commence e.g. Lieutenant.
WL-3: Systematic Provision
Responsibility for dealing with the demand generated by flows of cases or problems of given types i.e. a service workload.
Nature of the Output
Here, the work involves managing a system of available staff and specific facilities so as to efficiently handle presenting demand, taking into account higher level priorities and the inevitable fluctuations both in workload and staffing. Services must be maintained in the face of a changing flow of presenting needs or cases and unexpected disruptions. The work entails making the best use of concrete resources like space, time, and the actual people in post.
Examples
- Tasks: Develop new procedures to increase quality, set up an in-service training program, provide rotas for continuous cover for a service over the annual cycle, implement changes generated by a higher-level long term plan.
- Jobs: Service manager, sales manager, information analyst, management accountant.
- Organizations: Many small businesses are operated at this level; a department in a large organization; a medical service within a hospital.
Time Scale
Tasks involve developing and introducing exact programs, methods, procedures and quality standards. Analysing the present situation, developing a new system, negotiating its introduction and ironing out teething problems leads to a typical time-scale of 1-2 years. In smaller outfits, the time taken might be shorter.
New methods and procedures must be considered, but they are taken from what is given and generally accepted. WL3 work typically does not include deciding to develop services not currently provided: although suggestions can be offered.
Titles
This is middle management, typically with job titles like: Principal, Head, Chief, Superintendent, Departmental Manager. In the military, titles include Captain, Major, Colonel, Commander.
WL-4: Comprehensive Provision
Responsibility for dealing with imbalances and gaps in a given range of services which meet the needs of a given social territory.
Nature of the Output
Management of operations by matching long-term plans to available resources, and implementing within agreed and detailed budgets.
There is a constant concern for services that are not currently provided as well as those that are. However the services and needs referred to are of some conventional, given or agreed kind. The work involves:
► assessing needs in a given manner;
► planning, costing and negotiating new developments;
► undertaking any necessary restructuring of services and roles; and
► implementing changes using given management control methods.
As needs and contexts change, old services require re-design or abandonment and new services must be instituted. There is a loss of concrete detail in this work: rather than dealing with particular staff members, the focus is on the «staff establishment» and instead of item costs and specific budgets, the focus is on «budgetary control» and «mobilizing funds».
Examples
- Tasks: Project manage a new small hospital; prepare a costed annual plan for development of nursing services in a large general hospital; introduce a new range of products to a market.
- Jobs: General Manager or Director of Marketing in a Business Unit-WL5. In the army, generals commence at WL4.
Director of Nursing in a large hospital.
- Organizations: Many firms and public companies operate with a CEO at WL4; major divisions of operating subsidiaries-WL5.
Time Scale
The time-scale for planning, implementing and evaluating a development that affects multiple services and covers a territory typically extends from 2 to 5 years. Such projects affect roles and activities of numerous occupations or disciplines in many parts of the organization: management is therefore general in nature (rather than specialist).
Titles
This is general management, typically with job titles like: Director, Vice-President, General Manager. In the military, this is where General is used in the army, Admiral in the navy, Commodore or Marshal in the air-force. The WL4-role in each case heads up a division or unit with multiple services and functions.
WL-5: Field Coverage
Responsibility for dealing with an operating entity that must meet the needs of some general but given kind throughout some given social territory using given conceptions of possible service.
Nature of the Output
The work entails growing a multi-service operation by determining a strategy that implements given policies. It is necessary to structure the needs and services and to shape all developments in terms of priorities; and this entails overseeing the development and implementation of a range of programs. Strategies at this level need confirmation by a governing body.
Examples
- Tasks: Devising a strategy that will integrate organizational plans involving various services/needs (e.g. financial, personnel, production, technology, marketing).
- Jobs: CEO or top finance job in a large organization; Group Business Planner in a multi-national. COO (Chief Operating Officer) in the HQ of a WL6-organization.
- Organizations: A WL5-business unit typically has three divisions: production, marketing, development (and each should be headed up by a WL4-general manager); subsidiary or business unit within a conglomerate or multi-national organization (i.e. WL6 or WL7).
Time Scale
Overseeing a range of programs that together deliver the enterprise's operational strategy leads to an extended time scale. The work may involve analysing environments and building inter-organizational and political relationships. The longest operational tasks may take up to 5-10 years to deliver e.g. building, buying or shutting down WL4-divisions.
Titles
This is a CEO of a Business Unit or Subsidiary, President, Group Head/Director in HQ of a function that has WL4-Directors in subsidiaries (e.g. human resources, planning).
WL-6: Multi-field Coverage
Responsibility for covering a cluster of discrete operating entities in the same territory or in multiple territories using given conceptions of needs and/or services.
Nature of the Output
Here, the work entails developing and resourcing principles and frameworks in regard to given conceptions of needs or services. The realization of these policies must be monitored and evaluated. It is usually necessary to deal with coordination, competition and boundary issues affecting the different operating entities. To produce the reports and documents needed by the governing body &/or WL7-CEO, assistance from subordinates within HQ working at WL5 and WL4 is required.
Examples
- Tasks: Arrange for a subsidiary to be spun-off as an independent entity and floated on the stock-market. Develop policies to handle re-engineering of processes in all subsidiaries. Devise strategic goals and the financial implications of entering a specific foreign market. Allocate capital to subsidiaries to enable major developments.
- Jobs: Chief Financial Officer of a conglomerate-WL6 or multi-national WL7. Controller of HQ-level subdivisions of a large multinational corporation. Chief of Public Relations in HQ.
- Organizations: Conglomerate HQ controlling businesses without a unifying identity; a organization that oversees subsidiaries in neighbouring countries (e.g. HQ for South East Asian subsidiaries, HQ for subsidiaries in European countries); regions in the UK's NHS; large municipal councils in the UK.
Time Scale
Managers collate information from markets, from the industry, from politics, from relevant scientific arenas, as well as from the operating entities to inform new policy and strategy and to monitor existing policies and strategies. Managers no longer zoom down into lower operational levels to resolve their issues. They do not have concrete tasks, but their main conceptual tasks will have time-scales measured in years.
Titles
CEO who heads up a conglomerate of non-synergistic operating businesses. Chief Operating Officer or Group/Regional CEO (under a WL7-CEO). Group Director in HQ (e.g. Finance).
WL-7: Total Field Coverage
Responsibility for defining concretely or abstractly the nature of needs-to-be-met, services-to-be-provided, and problems-to-be-tackled in the total field of concern, including deciding what is to be regarded as «acceptable», «given» or «agreed» at any lower level.
Nature of the Output
Here, there is a concern to create WL6 and WL5 entities (i.e. organizations or roles) so as to institutionalize conceptions of services, methods and styles. With input from WL6, overall priorities, strategies, policies and constraints for all lower levels are also set. Work requires judgements about political, economic, social and technological forces. A WL7 organization is not necessarily helpless in the face of these, it can exert a major force on its environment including governments.
Examples
- Tasks: Decisions about the enterprise as a whole—regardless of its size—i.e. the business it is in, the way it should conduct itself, standards that should apply throughout.
- Jobs: CEO.
- Organizations: Multinational corporation dividing the globe into a few territories or product divisions, each run by a WL6-CEO. The largest government agencies where HQ is separate from the operations e.g. the UK's National Health Service.
Time Scale
The time-scale of specific tasks may be very brief or very long: but who is to set these and demand accountability? Governing bodies properly avoid involvement in tasks. Boards are typically focused on one or two big and often public achievements, usually measured in a few years but possibly up to 5-10 years. In any case, the responsibility here is about pursuing an abstract and integrated vision, and this involves establishing realizable values, rather than realizing them.
Titles
CEO.
Logically and practically, there can be no higher context of work-responsibility than this.
Originally posted: 10-Jan-2014.